A children's centre set up under a Government initiative to support parents
will be closed after officials allgedly decided that families using it were
'too middle class'.

The Paint Pots Arts Club, in Hackney, London, will have its funding withdrawn at the end of the month as council officials said their monitoring had found that it was not reaching families with the most difficult needs.

The club is funded by one of the Government's flagship Sure Start centres which are aimed at supporting new parents and offer health services, childcare and early learning and employment advice.

Ella Ritches, director of Paint Pots, told the Mail on Sunday, that the education department at Hackney Council, known as the Learning Trust, had checked postcodes of the families using the centre and established the value of their properties.

Mrs Ritches said: "Middle class mothers struggle with work, sleep deprivation, and post natal depression just like any other mother. But the Learning Trust officials concluded that 68 per cent of all users were white. I told them just because they are white does not mean they are middle-class. But they said you could work out their properties' value from their postcodes."

A letter to Mrs Ritches from officials said: "Based on our monitoring information, the Arts Club is not reaching the families who have the most difficult needs. Accordingly I have to advise you that the contract for the Arts Club will end on March 31st."

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Mrs Ritches said: "This decision penalises the middle classes for being good parents."

A spokesman for the Learning Trust said: "According to data collected by the centre, 54 per cent of the children who use Paint Pots regularly, live outside its catchment area.

"In light of this information and an increase in the number of vulnerable families requiring additional support within the centre's catchment area a decision was made to divert funding into direct support for these families.

"We offer a wide range of services for all children regardless of their background. It is not being closed because it is being used by the middle classes."